Shadow effect
by Olav152
Summary: With everything Alex knew gone, will he find himself in this hostile world. Especially that he woke up in a fully synthetic body. Rated M for Language, Violence and Safety.
1. Welcome to hell

Foreword: Hello . In this foreword I wanted to thank VenomRED, Herr Wozzeck, iNf3ctioNz, GIRLIKESTACOS and especially Bahoogasmif because I began my adventure with FF by reading your story.

Also this story is (I think) darker approach towards SI into our beloved universe of Mass Effect. May or may not follow canon depending on how I felt about missions, characters and storyline. Names of caracters from "real world" are purely fictional to protect their personalities.

Mandatory disclaimer: I do _**NOT**_ own Mass Effect or any other mentioned production, be it game, movie, song, etc. All credit for those goes to their respective authors. Thpugh I do own my OC's.

That said - enjoy. _Olav152._

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Alex opened his eyes. Something seeme out of place, his body felt... actually he couldn't feel his body, unable to move even by inch, he could only stare at one point in the ceiling. He cautiously examined what could find in his field of vision.

He could only see plain white walls and ceiling. _Where am I? This definitely isn't my room. Am I paralysed... oh NO! Please no, no no, I can't be a damn vegetable. This can't be... This must be some kind of a nightmare._ As his thoughts became more and more chaotic, simple text appeared out of nowhere.

\- Restoring motoric fouctions... 10%, please standby. - _hmm, motoric functions? What is going on?_ He could only watch as the numbers on the message increased slowly. At 20% he felt his fingers and toes moving, at 30% he managed to raise his arms and carefully moved them as if they were made of glass. _Oookaay, that's totally not creepy at all._ He looked at his hands, noticing that they were covered by armored gloves. He looked down, finding that he was fully strapped in the same attire. He stretched his fingers, the material flexing without any form of resistance. _Looks cool, but what is that. Did some crazy cosplayers kidnap me?_

He supported himself to sitting position, by the time he was done numbers jumped to 50%. He swayed a bit trying to stay in the same position. _What is going on with me, I don't recognize this place. I don't know what happened to me, if only I could find someone with some answers._ Caught in his thoughts he simply stared for several minutes into the wall in front of him.

70%...80%...90%...100%

\- System reboot complete, activating implants...please wait...complete...preparing cyber warfare suite...complete... - he placed his head on his interwined hands. _Implants, like cardiac pacemaker? No, I didn't have any cardial problems. Wait... CYBER WARFARE SUITE, what the hell does this mean! This is insane. I need to get the hell away from here._

For now he ignored different flashing icons in his vision. He scanned his surroundings looking for a way out. Besides the bed he was sitting "his" room was empty. He noticed gray sliding door with circular red hologram in their center on the opposite side of the room. He got up and slowly walked towards them. _Why do I get the feeling I've seen door like that before?_ He thought as he examined them, two dark-grayish wings creating solid surface, without any visible weakness. Curious he put his hand, trying to figure out how to open them.

When his palm connected with the surface beneath the red hologram, his surroundings dissolved leaving him floating in air, surrounded by dense web of glowing lines. Without thinking, he grabbed closest one.

As world around came back he found himself in the same position, hand on doors but with the hologram turned green and spinning. _That was amazing, weird and awesome at the same time! Wouldn't be bad if I knew what it was._ Finally the hologram stopped and the doors opened. Revealing long corridor full of another doors. Filled with flashing red lights. _Sesame open! Yay! Where to now? Guess probably through the door at the end._

Following through he stumbled upon an office room with desk in the middle of it and a chair lying few meters away from it. Single item on the desk took his attention. It looked like a laptop, but with glowing orange display, instead of solid screen. _What? Impossible! Something like that doesn't even exist. How does this work?_ He thought leaning closer to the desk. The "screen displayed simple communicate.

\- Accesing log #17, do you wish to proceed?- He was obviously curious, finding any information about his situation seemed like priority to him. He scanned the keyboard, luckily it resembled "qwerty" one, so Alex easily found and pressed the "enter" button.

"...Transfer succesful, project Ares is progressing according to plan. Synthetic nervous system adapted to subject's brain patterns, and is fully operational. We plan to activate the subject in 2 weeks time before we implant control chip to ensure its loyalty to our cause..." recording ended.

 _Project Ares... control chip... synthetic nervous system..._ these phrases still repeating in his head as he tried to comprehend what he'd heard in that recording. _This is a joke, no a nightmare, I'll just wake up in my bed, go to school. Not be a damn terminator...wake up!_ He slapped himself across his face , only to have his hand stopped by hard surface surrounding his head. _Helmet?_ This all seemed like cheap sci-fi to him, the day before he was in his home minding his own business, and then... that.

Doors behind him hissed and he heard loud banging of heavy boots behind him. He turned around, just in time to see five armed and armored guards, pointing their guns at him. They were wearing full hardsuits with lots of ceramic plates covering their vital areas. Each of them had bandolier loaded with cylindrical objects. But he was more suprised at their insignia, yellow and black hexagon on white background. He recognized their weapons and armor.

"Great cosplay guys, really convincing. Now, explain what the FUCK is going on here!?"

Alex was extremely pissed, they were playing some stupid games with him. What the hell were they thinking.

"Humor from a robot, heh. Now stay where you are, hands where I can see them and no tricks Ares." Ordered man in front in gruff voice. All of them tensed. _They aren't cosplayers!_

"And if I refuse?" Alex shot back, trying to stay calm.

"The Illusive Man gets what rightfully belongs to him whether you like it or not." Their leader's words threw Alex off his balance. _The Illusive Man? Like the guy from Mass Effect? Crap, how did I get to ME universe and how did I land in Cerberus hands then?_

Man signaled 2 of his people to restrain Alex while others still held him at a gunpoint. He subconsciously took a step back, when these two lowered their assault rifles and drew their stun batons.

As they cautiously approached him Alex noticed one of guards at the rear to take slow step back and aim his gun at their leader. Rogue guard fired two times at him then quickly switched his target to the second armed guy placing three shoots to his chest. Hearing gunfire behind them guards with batons tuned back reaching for their guns to face new threat, one stopped mid turn by bullet slamming into his head, the last one only managed to switch back to his gun and fired once, hitting attacker into his chest, before he too ended with a bullet in the head. The only alive guard dropped his gun, took a step towards the wall and heavily sat next to it.

"Alex..." He managed to whisper one word. Alex still shaken after the deaths he witnessed, stood in the same spot unsure what to do. _He killed them! No, no, calm down. 1..2..3..10_ He mentally sighed. _Get your shit together!_ He looked around, ignoring bodies... sudden cough caught his attention.

"A-Alex..." He heard weak voice, it was the sitting guard. He walked closer and crouched above him.

"Hey, you need help!"

"Leave... lung punc...red...too late...for me" guard said between coughs. "Helmet... pull...up."Alex reluctantly put his hands on sides of the helmet and gently pulled upwards revealing wide jaw, lips covered in blood, high cheekbones, average nose, big brown eyes and extremely short dark hair. "NICK!" Alex shouted as he threw useless helmet across the room. Fighting urge to hug his brother, his mood further darkened seeing him like that.

"Hey...little broter...I'm... sorry...so sorry." He said coughing more blood.

"Nick, stop please, you'll be okay. Don't sleep, you'll make it." Alex grabbed his hand and squeezed it trying to ignore the obvious.

"Liar... " he grinned. "Listen... take my.. omni...omni-tool...answers...all on it...you know...password... the usual...now... run... escape..Cerberus." Every word visibly gave him pain. "Carry... on... goodbye...brother." With these words he closed his eyes and drew his last breath.

"Nick, wake up! NICK! NIIIICK!" Alex yelled desperately, slapping his brother with his free hand. After something that felt like eternity he simply let go of Nick's hand, put his hands on the dead man's arms and placed his head on his brother's chest, and stayed like that silently mourning him, his body unable to form tears.


	2. Escape

_They'll pay for this brother, I promise._ He reminded himself his brother's last words _run... escape..Cerberus_ echoing in his mind _But I need a plan._ Alex finally collected himself enough to notice small wristband laying near Nick's hand, he picked it with is fingers carefully examining unknown item. He slid it onto his left hand, experiencing sudden pressure on his wrist, series of orange hologram plates surrounding his arm. _An omni-tool... Nick's omni-tool._ The urge to break down greatly supressed, now he had to escape from this facility _and avenge Nick._ When the device asked for user password he hesitated for a moment _Where is the keyboard?_ He touched text field visible inside circular display over his palm. The hologram on his forearm shifted showing letters and symbols. _Okay, now the password... the usual, think Alex, what was his usual password..._

Without any other thought he tried every password he knew Nick used, everytime he'd seen -acces denied- message. Finally he gave up frustrated _I tried EVERY password I knew, what the hell Nick!_

Frustrated he slapped the omni-tool with open palm. Again he found himself surrounded by thick web of bright shifting lines. This time curiosity replaced suprise, he'd seen this before when he touched the door. He now took more time to look at the patterns, he realised that what he took for lines were actually data streams, some of them connecting with other ones, coming into small glowing orb, some of them coming outside and disappearing far away, other ones dissolving just before contacting it. Alex tried tried to connect himself to one that was making it through into the orb, but he felt resistance blocking his approach, he pressed harder eventually he managed to catch the stream.

Momentarily he was back surrounded by the carnage from before. He looked back at the display showing him short message.

-Acces granted.- He allowed himself small smirk at his victory, frustration leaving him. _Whatever they did to me, this ability definitely comes in handy. Back to business now._ He pressed one of icons on the interface, momentarily images, text and video logs scrolled through his vision. To his suprise, they appeared before his eyes, instead of on his omni-tool.

He finally paid attention to other icons around his field of vision. He noticed small human outline and a number 100 slightly above it, below he could see bar, one fourth full, flashing in red. Central spot was obviously filled with files from omni-tool. _No time for it now._ He thought as the images faded. He looked at number on the right - 31.03.2183 E.S.T,- _All things considered, this isn't the worst..._

 _"Charlie team what's your status"_

Voice echoed in guard's radio interrupting the thought. _Shit, shit, shit._ His sight followed to one of dropped guns. _Fight my way out? No training, no shields, with only a gun against god knows how many trained enemies, on unknown ground. Sounds fucking perfect._ He grabbed one of the assault rifles. _Lighter than I imagined._ His HUD recognized it as M-96 Mattock. _12.84% succes chance in open combat... what the fuck did I just... nevermind._ He gave mental sigh. _12% doesn't sound too reassuring. So what now, sneak past them?_ He looked again at the gun and shrugged. _Better have it and not need it._

He scanned the room again, then he took notice of a vent in the corner. He suddenly felt wave of calmess when he pulled out the grate and crawled inside, he put the grate back in its place. He looked back for the last time, saying his last goodbye.

Alex slowly crawled through the ventilation, careful not to make any noise. He came across another grate, and peeked between its bars. To his eyes came long corridor, darkness disturbed only by occasional red lightbulbs. _Where am I. I could use a map._ As soon as he finished his thought word "map" image appeared in his vision. _Whoa! So this place is called Ares Facility. Right, Mass Effect... Hangar bay! That's my chance, I think I could put this hacking magic to get something and fly away._ He looked closer, plotting his route. _Hmm, follow this vent for about 40 meters, get out, then turn left, go through maintenance tunnel, open the doors then hijack a shuttle and voila._

As he made first move, doors to his left opened and revealed four guards patrolling the corridor, one of them barking orders. Alex stopped momentarily, not willing to reveal his position. Guards positioned themselves around opposite doors, first one typing on his omni-tool, others covering him. Finally doors slid open and they stormed through them, . _They went into direction I came from, better hurry before they find the bodies._ Alex thought, when the last of them disappeared from his view. He crawled furher ahead, until he arrived to the end of the ventilation. He scanned the room looking for any guards, not finding any, he pushed the grate and jumped out of the vent, precautiously pointing his assault rifle towards the door. He didn't bother closing the vent behind him, and quietly sneaked closer the exit.

 _Alright, time for the magic. Sesame Open!_ He thought while simultaneously placing his hand on the red hologram. Again he'd see strings of data flying at every direction, creating incomprehensible web of connections, but he didn't hesitate, he connected himself to the nearest stream and sneaked past the firewalls giving command to open. _I'm getting better at this._ He thought with a little smirk, as the doors slid aside revealing to his eyes huge room.

It was filled with all kinds of vehicles. Starting with six-wheeled bulky IFV's with small turrets on their tops, lower profiled tanks with covered wheels and about one and half times bigger turret, trident shaped planes, possibly fighters, far ahead behind the large opened doors he could see a landing pad with few shuttles parked on it. He also could see lots of plants, extremely dense rainforest far away from the pad. _M-35's, M-29's, F-61's and UT-45's in there according to my HUD._ Cerberus people, mechanics and guards were everywhere around. _And a shitton of Cerberus._

He moved closer to the nearest MAKO and hid behind it. Fortunately no one noticed him entering the room. He moved to the left, hiding behind the crates and fuel tanks. _Okay, now go through the entire hangar, preferably unseen.I think I could stick to these crates, then cross 10 meters to the exit and run to the landing pad._

Sneaking from cover to cover he came halfway through the hangar when alarms came to life filling the air with impossible cacophony of sounds. Hangar doors became slowly closing, and every person inside started running deeper into facility. _Fuck_ Alex didn't have the time to waste, he jumped out of his cover and ran as fast as he could purely focusing on getting throught the doors before they closed. He didn't pay attention to suprised shouts and the following sound of gunfire and bullets flying all around him.

...6 meters... 5... 3... 2... 1 meter. He stormed through half meter gap in the doors. Losing his balance when he felt powerful force pushing him forward. _Minor damage to shoulder._ His HUD reported. He collected himself and ran towards the nearest shuttle. Lone man stepped out of it and tried to stop Alex from getting in. Without slowing down Alex pushed the man out of his way, clearly stronger than he thought, the operative flew in the air out of the pad, screaming in panic. The scram was cut off when Alex jumped into shuttle through open hatch. He sat in the pilot seat and scanned the controls. He got an idea. _Hope it works._ He thought as he tried to connect himself to the shuttle.

World around Alex blacked out for a moment, to come back, but from different perspective. Everything around the shuttle came as gray mix of shapes, few extremely bright human shaped figures disrupting the monotonous background. Shuttle powered up, thrusters activating and lifting it up. Shots being deflected by the kinetic barriers. _Come on._ He urged, shuttle obediently speeding up as it gained attitude and breached the atmosphere. _I made it! Now where to now. Navigation says I'm somewhere in Crescent Nebula, this thing has the FTL drive. I could fly the hell away from here._ Alarms in the shuttle activated, scanner picking multiple signatures pursuing him from the planet. _Damn it. Engage FTL._ He thought, choosing first system from the list. Shuttle rocked the same moment it engaged the FTL drive.

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A/N: Second chapter is up. I also slightly fixed one element in previous one.

Anyway, I think I'll be updating this story once per week.


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